News, Views and More on ERHC Energy (OTC BB Symbol ERHE) from American Reporter Editor-in-Chief Joe Shea, an ERHE Investor

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Jefferson Video May Reveal 'Crooked Graft;' Other Cases Hinted

My grandfather, John S. Shea, defeated a fellow named Christy Sullivan for Sheriff of New York in 1909, marking the first time a Republican won in Manhattan since Reconstruction, and the last since my Uncle Billy won a judgeship in 1954.

And it was Christy Sullivan who famously defined "honest graft" and "crooked graft," a historical anecdote for which I am indebted to my former boss, HHS Deputy Director Al DelliBovi of Queens, now president of the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York.

"Honest graft," Sullivan said, was graft where the taker performed the task he had been paid for; "crooked graft" was graft where the taker did not keep his side of the corrupt bargain.

Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana appears to have taken some crooked graft, according to a long article out today that describes a video in which Rep. Jefferson promises to pay a high Nigerian official some part of a cash $100,000 bribe he is seen accepting.

The zinger is, as we learn later in the story, the high official - Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar, chief rival of President Olusegun Obasanjo for an unprecedented (and currently unconstitutional) third term as Nigeria's president - never got the money, The FBI found all but $10,000 of it in Jefferson's freezer (it was cold cash, we presume), somewhere amid the hickory-smoked hams.

Jefferson assured the FBI informant in their coded conversations that he paid the money to the Nigerian official, even though the money was still in Jefferson's possession when agents searched his home Aug. 3.

It is a matter of some irony that the female executive who wore the wire that trapped Jefferson was someone who told the FBI she had been ripped off by Jefferson and a pal of his in another transaction. The payback for crooked graft can be sweet:

The document includes excerpts of conversations between Jefferson and an unidentified business executive from northern Virginia. She agreed to wear a wire after she approached the FBI with complaints that Jefferson and an associate had ripped her off in a business deal.

It would be interesting, indeed, if that woman turned out to be someone we know.

But what is important to shareholders of ERHC Energy, and possibly to those of GEECF as well, is "seven other schemes" the story tells us were investigated by the FBI in which Jefferson is also said to have taken bribes.

The affidavit also spells out "seven other schemes" in which Jefferson was involved; nearly all were blacked out in the document.

Payments to Abubakar, or attempts to pay him, or being the source for some of the money that was to have been paid to him, conceivably could be the cause for the search warrant that that was served on ERHC Energy headquarters on May 4. No one know for sure, and it may be some time before we learn any further details of the probe of Jefferson or the details of the search warrant.

What is known is that periodically, ERHC Energy CEO Sir Emeka Offor has been described as a friend of Abubakar, and Abubakar has been described as an investor in ERHC Energy. However, whether that is the case or not - especially concerning the investment - is unknown.

The company has said it had no dealings whatever with Nigerian officials during the time it sought equity in blocks of the Nigeria-Sao Tome and Joint Development Zone that now appear to be fabulously rich in oil resources. The possibility would seem to remain that it had dealings through an intermediary, Rep. Jefferson, but no evidence at all has emerged to lend support to such speculation by ERHC critics and others.

Here is the AP story by Matthew Barakat from today, which unaccountably reversesAbubakar's name:

A congressman under investigation for bribery was caught on videotape accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an FBI informant whose conversations with the lawmaker also were recorded, according to a court document released Sunday. Agents later found the cash hidden in his freezer.

At one audiotaped meeting, Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record), D-La., chuckles about writing in code to keep secret what the government contends was his corrupt role in getting his children a cut of a communications company's deal for work in Africa.

As Jefferson and the informant passed notes about what percentage the lawmaker's family might receive, the congressman "began laughing and said, 'All these damn notes we're writing to each other as if we're talking, as if the FBI is watching,'" according to the affidavit.

Jefferson, who represents New Orleans, has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing.

As for the $100,000, the government says Jefferson got the money in a leather briefcase last July 30 at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Arlington. The plan was for the lawmaker to use the cash to bribe a high-ranking Nigerian official — the name is blacked out in the court document — to ensure the success of a business deal in that country, the affidavit said.

All but $10,000 was recovered on Aug. 3 when the FBI searched Jefferson's home in Washington. The money was stuffed in his freezer, wrapped in $10,000 packs and concealed in food containers and aluminum foil.

Two of Jefferson's associates have pleaded guilty to bribery-related charges in federal court in Alexandria. One, businessman Vernon Jackson of Louisville, Ky., admitted paying more than $400,000 in bribes to the lawmaker in exchange for his help securing business deals for Jackson's telecommunications company in Nigeria and other African countries.

The new details about the case emerged after federal agents searched Jefferson's congressional office on Capitol Hill Saturday night and Sunday. The nearly 100-page affidavit for a search warrant, made public Sunday with large portions blacked out, spells out much of the evidence so far.

The document includes excerpts of conversations between Jefferson and an unidentified business executive from northern Virginia. She agreed to wear a wire after she approached the FBI with complaints that Jefferson and an associate had ripped her off in a business deal.

Jefferson's lawyer, Robert Trout, contended that the prosecutors' disclosure was "part of a public relations agenda and an attempt to embarrass Congressman Jefferson. The affidavit itself is just one side of the story which has not been tested in court," Trout said in a statement.

The affidavit says Jefferson is caught on videotape at the Ritz-Carlton as he takes a reddish-brown briefcase from the trunk of the informant's car, slips it into a cloth bag, puts the bag into his 1990 Lincoln Town Car and drives away.

The $100 bills in the suitcase had the same serial numbers as those found in Jefferson's freezer.

While the name of the intended recipient of the $100,000 is blacked out, other details in the affidavit indicate he is Abubakar Atiku, Nigeria's vice president. He owns a home in Potomac, Md., that authorities have searched as part of the Jefferson investigation.

Jefferson assured the FBI informant in their coded conversations that he paid the money to the Nigerian official, even though the money was still in Jefferson's possession when agents searched his home Aug. 3.

On Aug. 1, two days after Jefferson picked up the $100,000, the informant called Jefferson to ask about the status of "the package."

Jefferson responded: "I gave him the African art that you gave me and he was very pleased."

When Jefferson and the informant had dinner at a Washington restaurant on May 12, 2005, the FBI was listening, too. Jefferson indicates he will need an increased stake in the profits of one deal, the affidavit said. Instead of the 7 percent stake originally agreed upon, he writes "18-20" on a piece of paper and passes it to the informant.

That is when negotiations move ahead and notes go back and forth, ending with Jefferson's laughter about the FBI watching it all.

Throughout the conversations, Jefferson makes attempts to deflect direct connections to any bribes.

He tells the informant at one point that money should be paid to businesses operated by his children. "I make a deal for my children. It wouldn't be me," Jefferson said, according to the affidavit.

In a different conversation, Jefferson seeks to distance himself from bribes that must be paid to Nigerian government officials to facilitate transactions.

"If he's gotta pay Minister X, we don't want to know. It's not our deal," Jefferson told the witness, according to the affidavit. "We're not paying Minister X a damn thing. That's all, you know, international fraud crap. We're not doing that. We're not doing any of that that gets us (unintelligible)."

The affidavit also spells out "seven other schemes" in which Jefferson was involved; nearly all were blacked out in the document.

The Jefferson investigation has provided fodder for Republicans who have suffered black eyes in the investigations of current and former GOP lawmakers, including Tom DeLay and Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

Jefferson, who has pledged not to resign from Congress in the face of the bribery investigation, speculated about his political future in one of the recorded conversations.

When the informant asked Jefferson about his political plans, he responded: "I'm gonna get your deal out of the way ... and I probably won't last long after that."

About Me

... My greatest achievement was to win a First Amendment lawsuit (Shea v Reno) against Atty. Gen. Janet Reno over the First Amendment, in which I got a law declared unconstitutional in Manhattan Federal Court and was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
I've been a reporter almost all my life, and have worked at or published in publications like The Reader's Digest, Esquire, Argosy, the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. I was a 1970 Pulitzer Prize nominee for my stories in the Village Voice, and am an investigative reporter who once got the President's nominee to the SEC withdrawn.
I'm also a native New Yorker who grew up on a farm in a small village that is now an important suburb of New York City. We still live in our pre-Revolutionary War family farmhouse there. I lived in Marietta, Ga., and Norman, Okla., as a kid, and went to the University of Oklahoma, Orange County Community College in Middletown, N.Y., and Antioch College in Columbia, Md.
I lived in Beverly Hills and Hollywood, Calif., for 26 years until moving to Bradenton, Fla., in 2003.